1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to a compact structure of a facsimile machine wherein a single feeding path for documents and recording sheets is defined effectively in limited space of a casing.
2. Background Art
In recent years, there has been proposed a facsimile machine which uses a single roller used for reading images from documents and printing transmitted images on recording sheets for miniaturization of the machine.
FIG. 3 shows an internal structure of such a facsimile machine. The facsimile machine includes generally a document tray 301, a feeding roller 302 for feeding documents to an image reading station, a contact image sensor 303, a reading-recording roller 304, a guide plate for guiding the documents to the image reading station, and an ejecting plate 306 for ejecting the documents whose images have been read to ejecting rollers 307. The facsimile machine further includes a roll of recording paper 308, a recording paper-pressing spring 310 for pressing recording paper 309 against the reading-recording roller 304, a thermal recording head 311, a recording head-pressing spring 312 for pressing the thermal recording head 311 against the roller 304.
During a record mode of operation, the thermal recording head 311 is urged by the spring 312 against the reading-recording roller 304 to record or print transmitted information data, or images on the recording paper 309 held on the reading-recording roller 304. The recording paper 309 is then ejected along a recording paper ejecting path C.
During a read mode of operation, the documents stacked on the document tray 301 are sequentially fed by the feeding roller 302 onto the guide plate 305 along a document feeding path D. The documents are then read by the contact image sensor 303 according to rotation of the reading-recording roller 304. After completion of the reading operation, the documents are guided by the ejecting plate 306 to the ejecting rollers 307 so that they are ejected outside the facsimile machine.
The above prior art facsimile machine, however, has suffered from a drawback in that since the recording paper ejecting path C and the document feeding path D are separate from each other, consuming a large mount of space in a casing, it is difficult to reduce the size of the machine.
In order to design a compact structure of a facsimile machine, it is necessary to arrange component parts of the machine effectively in a limited space of a casing while securing space sufficient to define paths of travel for recording paper and documents. The degree of compactness of the machine is also dependent upon arrangements of the paths of travel in the casing.
Additionally, as long as the recording paper ejecting path C and the document feeding path D are separate from each other, it is necessary to have four openings: document and recording paper inlets and document and recording paper outlets formed separately in both side surfaces of the casing, thereby restricting a reduction in size of the machine extremely.